Agamemnon

Translated by Stephen Watts and Marga Burgui-Artajo

He came back
from the dusts of war
with a wounded heart, his
arms full with drums & gold
dreaming of Clytemnestra's
honeyed lips that at that very
moment Aegisthus was melting
with his own, as every night.
And as he opened the door
he sensed on her lips' grease
the thousands of corpses he'd
abandoned under the open sky
& recalled how he'd forgotten
to leave his own body there.

Baghdad 14th January 1993